Abstract
In researching hunger and poverty in America I predominantly found a large sum of propositions and goals that were created by national government or global organizations but with no statistics that backed up any achievements created by these goals. I had really hoped to find progress or a system that proved to be working in eradicating poverty and hunger but I could not. I chose to take a stance against all government involvement in the issue and set out to show some of the flaws in their programs and also to recommend that we attack the issue on an individual level. Many of the sources I found discussing poverty in particular, agreed that government involvement has done nothing to reduce the poverty in America and does not seem to have a backup plan for when the programs we have in place fail. My focus is on the attainability of the goals as well as the program failures that need to be addressed.
Ending Poverty in America: Hope Is All We Have
America is no stranger to poverty and will continue to become more familiar with the hunger and helplessness that comes along with poverty. America is not the first country to experience poverty’s grasp on a nation but America has perfected it; choosing not to take action when fully capable, when other nations did not have options. Poverty and hunger are not choices for a laid off worker, the disabled or the single mother. Lack of education, a government that does not help the people, mental illness and greedy corporations are some of the contributing factors that will continue to keep the people of America hungry, poor and tired. The fight about who is right or wrong between government parties reflect the same social fight that continues to push America to separate sides instead of coming together. Focusing on the war on drugs, the war in Iraq and the war for Capitalist personal gains have outshined the war on poverty for the last thirty years, and now it is time for real change we can believe in. Should we believe in change at all? Ronald Reagan declared in his 1988 address to the Union, “Some years ago, the federal government declared War on Poverty, and poverty won” (Billitteri).
When the history of poverty in America is brought to mind, thoughts of old west times or slave trade are imagined; times when there were only the rich and the poor with no trace of middleclass emergence. The cotton farmers of the 19th century were the privileged and collected their riches; the black slaves did the work and were not paid at all. The same plight was carried on for generations, even after slavery ended, after new rights were conceived and after equality was gained. The United Nations states, “The gap between the richest and the poorest households remains enormous.”
The government has done very little recently to aid the fight against hunger and poverty, and the stance on what should be done varies from representative to representative. During the 2008 presidential election Republican candidates, like Mike Huckabee, presented that poverty and hunger are related to an individual’s lifestyle (Billitteri); the person is responsible for being poor. Additionally, candidates Sam Brownback, Mitt Romney and Fred Thompson voted against raising minimum wage, instead proposing tax cuts and benefits for married couples (Billitteri). The government involvement in the lives of the American people is misplaced; the goal is not to relieve poverty but to incorporate a set of beliefs into the population. People that don’t fit a mold for what the government sees as candidates for a better life are not given the help they need, as seen by the program proposals that aim to reward rather than relieve. The proposals made by these Representatives elude that the American people are lazy and the change needs to come, not from the governments and agencies in charge, but from the people themselves.
The millennium development goals report state, “Progress is being made, but not fast enough to reach the MDG target.” The biggest threat to achieving the millennium goals is that the pace of the population growth is greater than the aid that can be given (United Nations). The population growth rate will only increase as time goes by, so the amount of food supplied needs to be the estimated amount the population in the future. While the United Nations relates these issues on a global level, the United States suffers similarly by never having a surplus for those that may need aid in the future.
To successfully achieve the goals that the United Nations and the American government would like to achieve the following would have to be included in the efforts:
Ÿ Eliminate all natural disasters: Without hurricanes, fire, global warming or tornados the American people will never again have to lose all that they have and begin all over again.
Ÿ Establish Equal Pay: Under the Equal Pay proposition every single person in America will make the same amount, regardless of their job or title or education.
Ÿ End War: Since the start of the Iraq and Afghanistan war in 2001, America has spent $1,153,718,800,000 (costofwar.com) and counting. This is enough money to give all 308,745,538 Americans almost $4,000 per person.
These proposals are obviously ridiculous and completely unattainable but they are no more ridiculous than saying that there ever could be an end to poverty. The ideas of ending war, eliminating natural disasters and equality of American workers are just as feasible as relying on the American Government to put an end to hunger.
Some of the most recent contributions from state and federal agencies include introducing welfare reform, the food stamp program and the Earned Income Tax Credit (Koch). Welfare was at one time available for all who needed the assistance, but the welfare reform that took place in 1996 made welfare an incentive based program, requiring recipients to work more to receive the aid they need (Koch). While the incentive basis gives those receiving the aid the sense they are earning what they are receiving, the reformed program also gives the recipients the sense that they are not already doing as much as they can to stay afloat with the cost of living (Koch). With the welfare reform, the food stamp program has taken on major reform as well, only allowing those that have established themselves in the workforce to receive the benefits, leaving out those that are most in need. The Earned Income Credit has been the most promising of the programs set out to help the poverty stricken; allowing those that have managed to gain employment the ability to receive less tax deduction on each paycheck, but the amount given is trivial in the long run. The earned Income Credit is certainly not going to pull any single person out of poverty for an extended period of time.
Trisha Anderson, a pediatric therapist for St. Luke’s in Nampa, Idaho has seen firsthand the effects of poverty; not just the effects on the patients but on the clinic where she works as well. St. Luke’s is a non-profit organization, meaning the patient can still get aid even without insurance. “My typical case load is 90 percent non-insured and Medicaid has severely lowered what or who they will cover,” Anderson reveals. “Being non-profit, the patient gets the treatment they need but the hospital still has to write the amount off to absorb the cost, instead of getting paid. The lack of income has caused hiring freezes within the organization and in some cases furloughs at some clinics.” St. Luke’s and other non-profit organizations want to be able to provide the best services possible, regardless of the ability to pay. However, programs like Medicaid and Medicare are in trouble, soon they will not be able to cover any amount at all. “We would hate to turn patients away,” Anderson laments, “but the money won’t last forever.”
The programs that have been set up by the government to help eradicate poverty have not worked, at least in the long term. America’s entire frame of mind on work, education and food production has to change. New thinking has emerged but it seems controversial and contradicts what America thinks of as the way of life.
The way in which America feeds the people of America needs to change. On the other side of the poverty spectrum are parents that are forced to feed their children processed and unhealthy foods. Obesity plagues the poor of America because fast foods and packaged meals are much more affordable and easier for a single working parent to prepare. The parents are not totally to blame because our public schools are serving the same things.
America’s Capitalist economy has succeeded in making the rich more secure, but has left no room for those who cannot afford an education or the ability to start a business to succeed. The Socialist Equality Party says that our rights need to be revised to include the right to a job, a livable income, affordable housing, education, health care and protection from corporate greed. Creating more rights is where the interjection of government is necessary, not in telling us how to live our lives, as the government is constantly trying to do.
Poverty is here to stay; efforts can be made to alleviate the issue but hunger and class issues are a burden of life. All the money in the world can be thrown at resolving the issue but it hasn’t worked in the last hundred years and it certainly won’t work in the next century. The only hope that we have for the future is coming together as a nation and adopting goals that include helping each other on a personal level. America is built upon tiers of society; there will always be rich and there will always be poor and there will always be struggles. Since we know we can’t rely on the government, all we have is each other.
Works Cited
Billitteri, T.J. Domestic Poverty. CQ Researcher, Volume 17, Issue 31, pp. 721-744, 2007. From http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/. Web.
National Priorities Project. Cost of War. Costofwar.com. 2011. Web
Koch, Kathy. Child Poverty. CQ Researcher, Volume 10, Issue 13, pp. 281-304. 2000. Web.
Koch, K. Hunger in America. CQ Researcher, Volume 10, Issue 44, pp. 1033-1056. 2000.
Socialist Equality Party. The Breakdown of Capitalism and the Fight for Socialism in the United States. Mehring Books, 2010. Print
United Nations. The Millennium Development Goals Report. DESA, 2010. PDF.
Bibliography
Billitteri, T.J. Domestic Poverty. CQ Researcher, Volume 17, Issue 31, pp. 721-744, 2007. From http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/. Web.
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Katel, P. Ending poverty. CQ Researcher, Volume 15, Issue 31, pp. 733-760. 2007. Web.
Koch, Kathy. Child Poverty. CQ Researcher, Volume 10, Issue 13, pp. 281-304. 2000. Web.
Koch, K. Hunger in America. CQ Researcher, Volume 10, Issue 44, pp. 1033-1056. 2000.
National Priorities Project. Cost of War. Costofwar.com. 2011. Web
Socialist Equality Party. The Breakdown of Capitalism and the Fight for Socialism in the United States. Mehring Books, 2010. Print
Sullivan, Ashley F and Choi, Eunyoung. Hunger and Food Insecurity in the Fifty States. Gert.oregon.gov, 2002. PDF
United Nations. The Millennium Development Goals Report. DESA, 2010. PDF.
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